Andy Mill grew up enjoying the wilds of Colorado, skiing in the winters and hunting and fly-fishing in the offseason. He rose to prominence as America’s top downhill skier in the 1970s. He competed in the ’74 Olympics where he finished sixth, the best finish by an American in decades. He retired from competitive skiing in ’81 after a very serious crash that left him with multiple injuries including a broken neck. He went on to work in television for 20 years, but it was his love of the outdoors, especially targeting tarpon on fly, that fueled his passion. He has won more invitational fly-fishing tarpon tournaments than anyone, including five Gold Cups. He has fished with some of the best guides and all sorts of celebrities and politicians. It is his love of fishing that led him to launch the Millhouse Podcast with his son Nicky. The podcast has documented the careers of famous guides, anglers and more.
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Well it was funny when I called you cuz I was on your street and I was like I’m not really sure where I am you said just look for the 200 lb Tarpon on the on the garage there garage and there it was and and then walking in your home here which
Thank you so much for inviting us over and the time I mean I can now it the whole milhous podcast is starting to make sense is this like a little history of saltwater fly fishing in your home here in Florida it’s really amazing you know milous just makes sense cuz it’s my
Son and I and this is the house of Mill um which basically represents just my my son and I but two uh the house of Mill can represent a mountain house and a Florida house but we have a big house as far as our relationship with the
Ocean in the mountains and the ringtone Mill House is I I just think it’s not good you know yeah but the stories you’re capturing and that’s really why I wanted to reach out and why I did is you know I started listening to the mil house podcast with you and Nikki and I
Just loved these characters you guys are chronicling and and getting down on tape um for you know posterity of all these really interesting guys you’ve gotten some very famous guys like flip pallet and Stu apt but there’s been a lot of interesting captains and stuff I never
Heard of and now I feel like I’ve gotten to know them through your podcast well it’s important to record the events and the evolution and the transition of our Sport and you don’t have to be famous or an icon to have played a role in that but also too
I think what’s really important and somebody told me this a long time ago if you hear about Aunt Mary’s Farm burns down you’re going to be more inclined to care if you know who Aunt Mar Mary is so one of the objectives is to find out how or who Aunt Mary is in
Each of our guests because a lot of the stories are not about fishing sure they’re about life yeah and like Nathaniel lynville the first half hour of the the podcast was talking about his heroin addiction and how fishing saved his life and that is a classic example
Of what really people that I think people gravitate to is not just catching a fish but the why and the how yeah behind it and it’s you know that passion it does lead to I mean you’re chasing Thrills you’re a thrill seeker I think when you’re fishing especially the
Way you did it catching big Tarpon and being competitive and you grew up an athlete and an Olympian and all these things and I think it could lead to those other devices it’s hard to live that life sometimes or when it abruptly stops or something and you guys aren’t
Afraid to ask those hard questions it’s it’s important because nobody’s going to listen unless you asked the hard questions yeah I I I think and I’m not a professional interviewer and neither is Nikki but we you know we’re just swinging you know by the seat of our
Pants but I I I I was involved with broadcast work for 20 years in the world of skiing so I got a little bit of a background but I you know but I think we’re doing all right no you’re doing really great and I was curious was it a
Pandemic project or was it something you guys had talked about or were you just wanting to rekindle some of these friendships with people well the root of the problem initially was Nikki couldn’t find a real job okay so he was in New York working as a brand manager with a good buddy of
His he initially was working for the United States tennis Association writing a train for two hours a day working for minimum wage and then when we moved back to Colorado he couldn’t find a job even with like backbone media who is a media company for all these outdoor Industries
Sure or outdoor companies he couldn’t get a job he said Dad I can’t get a job but I’ve been thinking about doing a podcast Dad let’s go interview all these great guys and put their stories you know on YouTube so they last for the rest of time and at the time I didn’t
Really want to do it because I didn’t want to go back to work and the more I thought about it the more I thought we’re going to really do two great things here Nikki is going to be really um embedded now in this fishing space
With this he’s going to gain a lot of respect he’s going to be able to make some money but most importantly we’re recording and documenting history yeah and I and that’s why I that’s why I dove all in I said yeah it took a little bit but
Once I realized you know that if we do this we’re going to do it right yeah and it’s it’s important I feel like we do the same thing in Angler’s Journal when we write stories about people these profiles it’s we’re capturing them and some of them are wellknown and some of
Them aren’t but they’re all unique and they’ve all got a cool story to tell exactly right and I just think as a as a listener it’s been a lot of fun to learn more about these people and I was curious to learn more about you and
Nikki and how it all came to be I know you grew up in the mountains from Aspen and you were an athlete and a skier and you started fly fishing pretty young right in the stre did I mean my family moved to Aspen when I was 7 in 1960 I was playing
Baseball doing what most kids do in the winter I was learning how to ski uh and then I was going to baseball practice I saw this fly line you know arcing horizontally across space and I thought wow that’s cool and I rode my bike over there it was the great Ernie
Schweber in town giving casting instructions uh on behalf of uh the Country Store fell right and I went over and pretty soon I had the the fly rod in my hand he’s teaching teaching me how to cast and I was learning how to tie flies and then instantly I gravitated to to
Fly fishing as much as I did to skiing so my whole life was based on you know going fast in the winter and catching fish in the summer that’s cool and there’s got to be some Thrills involved there I mean I was I went to school in Colorado and I wasn’t really a
Competitive skier but I was on the freestyle team and I skied the bumps okay cool and they always said you know you want to be right on that fine line of losing control and just sort of ride that line and so the stuff you were
Doing downhill you know 60 M an hour or more that thrill I mean is that what drove you all those years to do all these things well skiing is fun to start with you know you’re sliding down a mountain like a bird with no rules nobody’s telling you how slow or fast
You can go or not go nobody’s telling you make a turn here and there it’s total expression on skis flying with the wind and that’s really cool and and then now when you’re racing downhill you’re going up to 90 M an hour that’s crazy you know now you’re
Rolling that ski up on an edge and you’re ripping around that corner you’re building five G’s in that corner and you feel that edge if it slips just a little bit you’re losing time now it’s all that relationship with that with that Inside Edge of the downhill ski carving that
Turn and ripping it’s like you’re flying a plane ski gets out here is like riding high-speed uh motorcycles do cottis you know where you uh you you you you basically countert where you put the ski out here let the body come inside and the ski catches up underneath you just
Like on a motorcycle and this is the most amazing sensation now you have a chance to do this against the best in the world mhm and so for five months you’re traveling throughout Europe and every event you go to is the biggest event for that country ski
Racing is enormous in Europe yeah and now you know you have a chance to ski in the Olympics you know you’ve got to be one of the the the top four downhillers of ski in the Olympics so now you’re chasing you know the epitome that the top uh level of downhill ski racing
Against all the Europeans and and I dedicated my life to it yeah I would imagine it’s got to be this mentality of you know super focus training diet all these things and then I mean I’m skipping around but fast forward when you got into all the tarpon
Tournaments and you got into that world you were very motivated to win well here’s here’s the the transition and how I approached the whole Tarpon tournament thing I did not know how to win until my very last year as a ski racer I was always making bad decisions
I did not have a great mentor I was not smart enough to understand how to win and what it took to win putting my team together the skis the product the boots the technicians who who prepared my skis the coaches who taught me or I needed to
Teach me where to go fast where you can win where you can where you can lose it the Dynamics of of of the whole game of downhill ski racing my last year I was about ready to get kicked off the US ski team and then I won the last
Downhill of the year and then I thought man this is such a a great opportunity I wasn’t taking it that seriously I thought I was but I I didn’t really I was not but the last year as a skier I got an Austrian coach he took me to
Europe he changed my technique instead of a knee angulated move it was a hip angulated move where I can support more pressure on that downhill ski I started training against the austrians and now immediately I was skiing among the best in the world world and I hadn’t won yet
I was fifth in the pre-olympics I was sixth in the Olympics but I wanted to win and now I had a chance so I go back to the beginning of the season I get fourth right away I had the fastest training runs in St maritz and my ski
Fell off in the race then I go to venan that’s a higher and elevation you know softer snow cuz that hurt my knee when that ski fell off and I just got caught up because I had a knee operation at Christmas just a brief um um meniscus repair arthos scopically
I skipped the two downhills in Europe I skipped kids Spiel I skipped garish I go to I go to vengan and I told the coach I’m going to go into that first Corner as hard as I can was my left knee if it feels good I’m can continue but in the
Inspection that last jump into the Finish was really enormous I said pay attention here well I had my knee operated on and now I go back to vengan I go to that first Corner as fast as I can go my knee felt great I got I got I
Got distracted man I’m racing down the the course I’m going oh I’m back in it I’m going to I’m GNA I’m going to I’m going to I’m going to do this I’m gonna I’m going to win I’m going to win any day now I went into that last
Corner way too hot and right then just as I was going into that corner I realized holy this is so big and I got launched I went 200 some feet through the landed on the flat caught an edge and it pulled me in the fence and I
Broke my neck my back my right leg and all the liament in my right knee so my career was over dang just like that just like that so then I got into broadcasting I had a ski show and my my career as a skier was going really
Up I was about ready to win and then it flattened out it was horizontal cuz I hated broadcasting I was talking about something I wanted to do I had a ski show but I didn’t care m but then I got offered a job by the versus Network to
Do a fishing show Sportsman’s Journal Sportsman’s Journal so now I said you match what I make as a skier you give me a five-year contract and I’ll do it so I made a career change so the last 40 years I’ve been in fishing I left I completely left skiing I got with Harry
Spear who was my fishing Mentor he taught me how to be really good he taught me the nuances of being of the top of the top things you have to know to catch fish and he was one of the most successful Guides of all time he and Steve Huff so now in fishing
I had I had a mentor okay and I didn’t even know about termit at the time but he was grooming me to be a termit fisherman but you had a drive to get better better better I was just having fun but once I got seven years into the
Into the run with Harry I realized that I was pretty pretty damn good so we fish the tournament together we get second in the spring Bone Fish tournament and then we fish the fallly fallly Bone Fish listeners these are all in the keys these are all the biggest fly fishing
Saltwater fly fishing tournaments in the world they’re in the Florida Keys M you have a a spring Bonefish tournament a fall Bonefish tournament you have a couple permit tournaments and and three Tarpon tournaments long story short we win this the second the second tournament and then at that point I
Realized I am not going to lose cuz then Harry right after that tournament he left the game so now I had to find you know Timmy Hoover we went on and won five gold cups and I won six golden flies so it’s ridiculous Hardware Andy and but to get back like to find
That guide where you mesh and it works is can be challenging too it’s it’s it’s really hard and so it’s like finding a wife or something it’s not for sure because what I I realized in in in the Ski World you individual you have to understand but I needed a team in the
Ski world I didn’t have a team until my last year so when I when I started T terit fishing I had to figure out I realized right away I needed to have a guide that can find the fish that don’t want to be found and I needed to be the
Angler that can catch a fish that doesn’t want to be caught so now we’ve got that winning combination so I was very selective with who I was going to fish and I didn’t know everybody that well but the tournament success that they previously had you you start
Realizing these guys are good now I got I got to get on their boat okay like it took me three years to get Dustin Huff to fish the Del Brown permit tournament we played rounds and rounds and rounds of golf begging him and I finally got
Him to fish it and we won the first year we fished it but I didn’t want to fish that tournament without with anybody but Dustin Huff why was he reluctant just not into tournaments he wasn’t doing any tournaments yet so I think that was the first tournament he fished and then now
Look what he’s doing so he got a he got a taste of what it’s like to win I’m sure it’s intimidating to kind of walk into that room and see those fellas it’s not a big field it’s not like it’s 25 yeah are really the some of the top top
Anglers in the world and you got to know what you’re doing or you’re never going to you know and for me initially you know I was just like you know I was impressed I was like in awe of all these guys I’d read about them i’ seen him I
Didn’t know him very well and then slowly I started chipping away and then in the end it’s like which one of you guys are going to get second but were they accepting of you or at first was it tough to break into that click no the fishing people that that
Community is awesome they’re easy you know everybody wants to win but they’re the greatest people in the world yeah and then and now with the podcast it’s sort of you’re capturing a lot of that magic we’ve what’s happened you know I think that with the respect that I that
I’ve earned through the success I’ve had as a fisherman and I’ve always tried to be really a nice guy uh that is first and foremost I want to I want to be liked and and I I want to share the love I I love my fellow man um and I want to
Be liked so once I got that respect as a as a as a good guy I think I’m you know I’m assuming otherwise I wouldn’t do these podcast nice to me inv by into your homes is amazing and you know uh so therefore I can make these calls and get
Steve Huff to do this podcast cuz I don’t think Steve Huff is going to do a podcast with just yeah he’s he doesn’t do that he doesn’t yeah but I call him up and he’s said I’m in flip pallet I’m in Steve it’s too apt I’m in you know so
We got the Mount Rushmore fishing right away it’s really cool and then you’ve sort of branched out like I was listening to the interview you did with Ray Roser and I started listening to the Carl highis and one I mean there’s a lot of different venues and things these
People have done so well one of the most interesting interviews we did was not even about fishing we even talk about a fish because it was Neil bidelman who was on Mount Everest in 1996 when they when all those people died they got caught in that storm Neil is a friend of
Mine from Aspen he wanted to be a ski racer and he he ended up becoming uh an engineer designing uh antennas for for satellites but in the but between being a skier in college and and designing those he was a big mountain climber and he climbed
Everest three times and he was a guide on Everest that night when they got caught in that storm so the podcast with Neil was all about what happened on Everest in ’96 and that was one of our most successful downloads he had like 75,000 downloads wow because I think also the
Climbing Community wanted to hear his story he had never told his story before but but he did it on our podcast cuz we’re Pals you know but the fishing Community wanted to hear his story that’s amazing well you do have some pretty impressive friends looking around the photos in your tackle room and
Around your house a lot of time with George Bush and Lefty and Stu and all these interesting people yeah know I’ve been blessed and it was funny I when I was reading your book Um passion for Tarpon which I have around here somewhere but um I like the story you wrote about the
First time you cast to a Tarpin and it ate your fly and it kind of just went crazy but that was a good story it was like yeah it’s just well what there’s always a moment that will flip that switch that will make you jump off a cliff to do it
Again it’s like the first time he had sex like I’m going to do that again oh yeah and I’m going to do it a whole lot that’s what every chance I get that’s what like the first harpon but it was like I’m going to do this again I’m
Going to do it a whole lot I came back to Florida hired Captain Bob brandom and Harry Spear and I was all in and when you were talking about the skiing and when you were getting better and you started talking about the gear and looking around this room you know gear I
Mean you tie flies there’s a whole row of flies that have been destroyed by Tarpon over here that you’ve hung on to and you’ve worked with Hardy for a long time and you know gear I mean that’s a big part of the puzzle too right the the gear and the fly
Rods um now there are a lot of fly rods that are great there are a lot of reels that are great but when you dive deeper into what that Rod can do for you and what that reel can do for you there is maybe 1% of all fishermen fly fishermen
That would really understand and be able to use that just the upper echelon guys as far as reels you can go catch anything with the Reel it’s a great piece of jewelry but when you take a closer look at a reel like like this one
Here this is our new our new Hardy reel okay so you can see how light that is there’s a lot of space here you have a drag knob that goes from zero to full Dragon one revolution they not why is that important you don’t have time no
Because what happens is when you catch a big fish a lot of people will keep turning that drag knob increasing the tightness of the drag but they don’t know where they are this is more precise they don’t know where they are they don’t know if I’m at 8 lb 10 lb 12 lbs
And after an hour of fight they keep increasing that now the fish jumps out of the water and they break off what you can do with a reel like this okay I can put that fly line on on a uh on on a scale like a Boga grip and I can
Increase that drag and when that scale gets to 5 lbs I put a mark right there there mhm when it gets to 8 lbs it can be right there and I’m right-handed so I would put that Mark right here I make my own marks yeah for five I can go to
Eight and that’s 10 I know I’m never going to go above 10 so you have that option and you know exactly where you are yeah how many reels are made like that the moo and ours yeah it’s similar to like an offshore conventional reel
You do the same thing you set your so if you’re record if you’re world record fishing super 2B one pound Etc but no one in the industry builds a reel like that so you pick up a reel and they say well that’s a good looking reel you know
So it’s going to work for most people but if you’re trying to win tournaments and catch world record fish you have to understand a little bit more in detail what you’re buying and how well it’s going to work for you so when you got into this and I could see it became
Quickly kind of became an obsession for you or so it seems like you said this is the last 40 Years of your life when we walked in the house and you’re sh showing us the art and all these things um how much of your headp space did you
Spend thinking about all these little things or the Flies you’re going to use and the designers design the reals I tell them what I want yeah so Howard cron is the main designer and Englishman in England excuse me he was the world champion freshwater fisherman so and he
Used to also cast uh long distance Championship tournaments so when I tell him about a rod I need it to load a little bit better I need I need a little bit more ass in to hold that fish he knows freshwater but he doesn’t he’s not a you know a tarpon fisherman that’s
Done it a lot he’s C Tarpon yes but these are the type of inputs I give these guys we got to make a reel like this we got to make like that and and we end up with the that that fly rod right there that one piece
Hardy is used by more tournament Anglers than anybody in the Gold Cup two years ago the top seven teams were fishing Hardy they don’t break their one piece rods nobody makes that Rod but us interesting and but even like getting back to the individual stuff like choosing flies or perfecting your cast I
Mean did you I know because I read in your book like Lefty gave you lessons and all these people it seems like you were open to being coached well I didn’t know but the the the the really important thing is that if you’re going to be really good and insightful you
Have to to take the the knowledge that you’ve learned from your mentors and expand on that I was I was never taught how to cast between the boat for an example like if I got wind coming at me at the 12:00 and my guide is right here
How do I get a fly out there 80 feet directly to my right okay with a right hand cast I’m going to that backhand cast I’m going to pull a fly right in my face so I got to realize that I got to make a forehand cast but without having
The fly come to me so you make a forehand cast back like this back cast and come forward but the fly line is coming over my left shoulder so my rod tip might be over here because it’s blowing hard yeah if I do a backhand cast I’m going to hook my
Guide so you have to understand how am I comfortable making a cast with my head between my rod and my fly line and not many people teach that no but when you’re on the boat 40 50 60 days a year fishing all these tourament you understand
The Dynamics of how to make a backhand cast uh how you can make the fly go inside the boat in your head between the fly line and your Rod nobody teaches that yeah and I would imagine I don’t know what is the the relationship you normally have with some of your guides
Is it quiet on the boat is there some yelling is what yell never yelling I realized the first time how serious this stuff was my very first Gold Cup what year was that oh God I can’t remember probably early 2000s I won the first ter
I won was 1998 so it was probably the next that next year 99 with Harry spear we were in shark and I had caught a fish and I was backing him up and Harry had his hands on him he slipped out of his hands I tried to back him up to for
Harry to grab him again I broke him off and Harry stood up and took his hand Gaff and just threw it like into under the bottom of the boat so hard he was pissed like and he screamed what in the did you do that for and that’s when I
Realized hey this is serious stuff this is the Super Bowl for these guyses and Anglers this is the epitome this is like the Olympics the Gold Cup is like the Olympics of salt water shallow waterfly fishing that Tarpon Gold Cup and then I realized okay I got it I know how to do
This but like how hard is it to keep your composure with all that on the line or do you just not even think about it you you you don’t you it’s a you it’s a learning curve for sure because I think a lot of Anglers struggle with that it’s
Like you finally have your shot don’t f it up MH and that that those ideas in your brain are what end up initially we’re all nervous you when I first started tarpon fishing I was shaking in my bones the night before I couldn’t even
Sleep if I had to go to the bathroom at 1:00 in the morning and I happen to look out and see that the palm trees just just still calm I wouldn’t be able to sleep the rest of the night I was so excited and and fishing with Harry I was
Just so excited you can’t even breathe but the more you do it the the better you get the easier it is the more tournaments you fish you the there he is you just go and you don’t even think twice about it and there’s a trust between you and the guide oh absolutely
Something I always like writing about because you really get to know someone on a boat and I you know it’s it’s fun and that way and you become a team and sometimes you need a team yeah well it is all a team and you have to trust each
Other and I’ll give you a prime example one of the best days of guiding was in a gold cup with with Tim Hoover we were on Long Key the day be it was a Wednesday the day before we cut a big fish we cut like a 155 and we were in
The lead of this tournament and it’s like 12 12:30 we had even seen a fish and and Timmy says reel up we got to make a run and that meant we’re going to make a big run I said where we going he said we’re going to
Key West I said wow we get down there we’re going to only have like an hour and a half left to fish they got a high tail P then we got to run two hours home or an hour and a half home I didn’t say word we ran down there I made three
Casts I caught a 127 and a 117 ran home wow so you just trusted he knew he knew and he trust me knowing I can catch him yeah and the Gold Cup a great the best comebacks of all was in a in a gold cup one year we were dead last going into
The last day bad weather we had bad luck fish were falling off and Ken Colette the great guy that that’s passed you know rest in peace got love you know Kenny Kut but he was with fishing with AO a Japanese guy who had won the Gold
Cup a couple three times also and he yells over to me he said hey Andy you got to go move your boat we’re in our boat on the starting GD waiting for the for the blast of the horn to take off he tells me I’ve got to go go move my truck
Cuz it’s on a bad it’s got a bad luck on the parking spot cuz I park there every day he said your parking spots got bad mojo dude oh I wasn’t sure where you were going you’re you got to go move your truck truck I said really he said
You’re dead last you’re always in the top three going into the last day you got to move your truck dude I said okay I said Timmy we got to go move a truck let’s go Timmy it was not up for it all Timmy Hoover I said got to we got to
Move my truck so I get my get my bag out get my keys run over move my truck you know three blocks away run back jump in the boat I said Timmy this is the first nice day we’ve had you find me the fish I’m going to
Catch them and the field is only 2 70 lb fish ahead of us nobody was catching any fish we had five bites and caught all fish in all five fish in one damn last day last day but there you go it’s it’s a guide that can find the fish and an
Angler that can catch them and now in the tournaments there are a lot of guys that are really good Anglers and and guides so when you kind of segwayed out of fishing tournaments and just was were fishing for fun were you still fishing with those same guides or were you doing
It more on your own uh no no I just started fishing with my son and who who pulls the boat or you got we did P each other what happened was you know after we won five gold cups I think we fished one more year then Timmy didn’t want to
Fish tournaments anymore and I fished two tournaments with Dale Perez and and and right at that point my wife had left me I lost my family and fishing meant nothing to me I lost I lost my life I lost my family I lost my base and it’s
Like what am I doing here you know the priorities completely changed I had to go save my life cuz I was toast that was so you were married to Chris Evert M and that’s when all this happened and yeah when she left me it’s like I had to find
A place to live I lost my family the Dynamics of of my family and it’s like my world collapsed and so I just left fishing okay what brought you back to it oh I never totally left fishing I just had to take a you know a big
Departure uh but fishing with my son brought me back you know I mean there’s nothing better than spending a day with Nikki on the boat yeah he’s so good he is so good he learned so well and initially I had to lean on him a little
Bit and he talks about why did you yell at me so much I said Nikki cuz I knew you were you were in the game I knew that that I could I could mold you I could push you because you were already in you can’t do that with all kids
Initially it’s just playing with you know Snappers and this and that playing this playing with the mullet and all of a sudden he gets a little older he caught his first Tarpon when he was 11 on you know a nice big fish 12 years old
And then I realized he he loved it then I realized I I can push this kid and he’s so athletically you know he’s a superstar when it comes to you know hand eye coordination and being an athlete he’s world class in six Sports so I knew
This kid was ready he was hungry and I pushed him and he’s as good as anybody I promise you do your you have two other Sons right do they fish and Hunt too or they never gravitated to that they were skateboarders they raced Motocross you know but they never got the fishing bug
Okay so with with Nikki he fished a number of tournaments you know he got second he got second in the golden fly he got third in the Holly but then he kind of left it you know CU he’s you know doing the podcast and he got
Married and all that he might fish the Gold Cup one day but who knows that’s nice and you guys I mean you have two beautiful Skiffs in the back there and you guys fish mostly down in the keys or yeah we rent a house we
We rent a house on Sugarloaf Key and or near there behind Square Grouper we’ll fish for 6 weeks every day just the two of us and we’ll have a camera that guy that’ll come in and and create some content that we you know for our sponsors that we have uh he’s my best
Friend and then we go to Colorado and go into the High Country and and Hunt alcohol fall that’s pretty amazing I’ve got two little kids and I totally get what you’re saying like one of them’s really into it and I want them to be
Into it and I want them to have fun but sometimes you can’t help but bark at them a little or you know you can encourage them you just can’t push until they’re ready yeah and and and and I and I had that feeling with cuz I knew the
Other guys didn’t want to do it so how can you push somebody who’s out they don’t they don’t want to do it it’s like trying to force Somebody To Love You doesn’t work so well it does not work and so the competitive side was the driver and now it’s really that passion
And and sharing these stories and capturing all this cool um historical stuff um so what’s what’s next on the plate you know it’s I’ve had such a great life such a great run that it right now it’s it’s really about giving back you know to conservation just to
Preserving these stories and doing the best I can without getting you know burned out on doing it because it’s important for me to still have fun in my life to still I need to start working out because I’ve had 24 operations you know three in my shoulders last few
Years I just had my neck fused in June um I need to I need to build up my foundation so I can still do the things well that I like doing and not get hurt because I love being in the High Country chasing elk but if if my if I’m not
Strong enough I can’t pull my bow back I can’t carry my pack I can’t carry the meat out you know that whole world’s going to go away but that’s kind of cool so it’s these desires that are keeping you keeping me young yeah I mean but if
I didn’t have Nikki you know who knows what I’d be I’d probably still be Chason elk but he’s the drive that really kind of keeps me in the game for sure yeah you said something cool to me when we were walking around and you were showing me some of your trophies and
Stuff and you said that the house is like a museum of a career and um I can see it what are some of your favorite pieces you have here so much cool well you know a lot of photographs with my friends because when it’s all said and
Done it’s not about the winning it’s about the journey and it’s like the philosopher throw said many men go fishing their entire lives without knowing it’s not the fish they’re after and that’s sums it up yeah so when I look around it’s you know you see great
I love I love original oils I I just and the underwater genre is just captivating to me I just love great artwork but the photos of this like this elk that my son killed I called in for him uh it was really cool and how that elk was killed
Because I do the MC work for the Hall of Fame for the igfa Hall of Fame induction ceremony in September right during elk season so I fly to Missouri and Nicki calls me right after I get to the hotel room he goes dad and I can tell his
Voice he was really excited I almost killed I almost killed a good one tonight I said what happened he said I was full draw and a cow busted me and I didn’t get it I said well don’t go cuz the next night was a Saturday for the
Event and I was going to be back in as on Sunday noon I said don’t go in there tomorrow rested and I’ll get back on Sunday we’ll go in there we’ll find them and we’ll kill him blah blah blah that never happens well we went in that
Sunday evening we found that elk I called him in and Nikki killed him wow so that’s the type of stuff I do yeah with a bone arrow I mean that’s the type of stuff Nikki and I do you know we do we really fulfilled dreams Big Dreams
That most people just dream about but we’ve actually been able to go out and and and fulfill uh these great things that we’ve always wanted to do in your book it’s funny you say that cuz I wrote this quote down that you said um that you wondered what pulled you more the spirit
Or the dream so that’s kind of interesting that it would be that people do dream about this stuff and we get these rare opportunities and make the most of it look I think I think we live vibrantly when we’re chasing dreams not Dreaming Dreams but when you’re actually chasing
Them a lot of people have big dreams but it takes a big effort to go run those things down um like when we were when I had my run chasing down these tournaments I didn’t sleep for 15 years I was always messing with knots and pulling on scales and trying to
Figure out pulling on scales in my garage trying to figure out how much a certain amount what is 12 lbs in my hands because you can’t set 12 lbs on your drag it’s too tight they’re going to jump out of the water and break you
Off that dragon’s got to be like 3 to 5 lbs like nothing so you hang onto your fly line you pull 12 lbs but you got to know what 12 PBS feels like I lived in my garage pulling on scales for years tying knots tying flies that’s that’s the journey that that
Really um that I lived for and I love the journey yeah it Winning is Everything too I say everything because then you’re then your dreams come true I when win that but it’s the journey where we live vibrantly chasing those dreams trying to be the best in the world at
Something yeah winning doesn’t happen by accident no it takes a lot of work man it takes a it’s it you have to dedicate your life to it and that’s what I did I dedicated my life to to being an Olympic skier and I was so fortunate to have a
Second chance in fishing and when I got into the game it’s like man I’m not letting up cuz I didn’t win as a skier I was the best skier in the country i’ won big events but I wasn’t I didn’t win at the World Cup or Olympic medal people
Say I I I say this man you were a great skier man you skied in four World Championships and skied in two Olympics I said I was not great the great ones win those things and if you want to be known you look at anybody in town it’s the great
Players they all won the grand slams in in golf in fishing oh I finished third in the in the Gold Cup three or four times I did this your name is forgotten on Monday yeah if you want to if you want to have a legacy in in what you did you got to
Win good people are not remembered the greats are and you got to win to be great it’s powerful stuff and it’s you got to win over and over and over and now you know doing all this stuff with your kid and I think it’s seems like a a
Nice Circle well for sure because you can’t keep winning things we win with a great Balanced Life we we we we win with a passionate heart so my heart was filled chasing stuff early in life and raising a family and now my my heart is filled just by being happy
And knowing that you know a lot of the things that I chased down U were successful and that really is a is I I feel at ease now because I really wanted that these things so what’s the perfect day on the water these days just being with my son
You all right one big fish or steady action all day my last fish would be waiting for a tailing 14lb Bone Fish I love the organic setting where it’s just the seab breeze you a little bit of Ripple of the water if you’re maybe waiting Knee Deep or whatever the this
The Silence of nature but the silence is actually quite loud the birds the wind going through trees the waves that’s what I gravitate to I don’t want to be on a boat with somebody I mean with Nikki that’s always a paradise with him we’re whacking a bunch of Tarpon you know Dad
8:00 you see him Dad here he comes you know slide in there boom I catch I’m pulling him Nigi you got that fish over there but I never see a fish before him he’s always Dad you see that fish coming over there and I won’t see it for five
Minutes you know sure but being with him is is everything but if it’s one fish that we’re talking about it would be probably waiting for a big tailing bone fish there is a monster Bone Fish over there on your workbench that’s a 12 lb 3 o fish I caught in the springly that
Thing is huge I caught that with Timmy Hoover down on on boot key and and the thing died and I called King selfish Mount and uh mounts and Douglas came up and got it and mounted it for me it’s beautiful there’s so much fun stuff in
Your house to look at and so many cool stories it’s been a pleasure sitting down chatting with you oh no yeah pleasure is all mine thank you and I I think what you’re doing milhous is really great for the sport and to capture all these stories and you know
We try to do that in English Journal too and for anyone who’s interested check out Milhouse on Spotify I’m sure and all these spots sptify you can watch it on YouTube YouTube and we’ll do a little story in the magazine and Engler Journal about you and Nikki and this you know
Journey you’ve been on capturing these stories and talking to all these in interesting folks well thank you so much I really appreciate it yeah it’s been great all right Charlie thank you buddy thanks Andy I and you too Budd [Laughter] make sure to look for a follow-up
Article about our time with Andy Mill in an upcoming edition of English Journal Magazine
